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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoFile photoBefore he was governor, John Kasich criticized Gov. Ted Strickland’s use of state planes. Now, a spokesman says Kasich’s trips are paying off in new jobs.

Almost as soon as he took office, Gov. John Kasich quickly realized the value of flying on
state-owned aircraft to get to meetings and news conferences across Ohio.

But even before winning last year’s election, Kasich used the state’s two Beechcraft King Air
planes to score political points against then-Gov. Ted Strickland. During the sometimes-bitter
gubernatorial campaign, Kasich’s spokesman criticized Strickland’s travel patterns and called for a
review to determine if the “planes’ cost can be justified at all.”

However, as governor, Kasich flew on state aircraft 46 times from Jan. 10 through August of this
year at a cost to taxpayers of $60,320.50, according to the latest-available records provided to
The Dispatch. In all of last year, Strickland used the state’s planes 17 times at a cost
of $27.188.22.

Kasich’s beef with Strickland’s plane usage involved the former governor’s pattern of having a
plane fly from Ohio State University’s Don Scott Field, where the planes are kept, to Port Columbus
because of that airport’s proximity to Strickland’s office.

“We wished (Strickland) had used the plane more,” Rob Nichols told
The Dispatch last week, arguing that flying has enabled Kasich to cover more ground and
make more meetings that either lead to new jobs or allow him to make his case to Ohioans for
reforming government.

The state planes are also available to Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who has flown on four separate
occasions this year. While the total cost of those flights was not immediately available, records
and Kasich’s office confirmed that Taylor was either picked up or dropped off at the Akron-Canton
Airport for three of the trips. That airport is about 6 miles from her home in Uniontown.

For a trip to Findlay on June 28 for the grand opening of the CSX Intermodal Terminal in nearby
North Baltimore, the plane flew northeast from Don Scott to Akron-Canton to pick up Taylor, then
traveled west to Findlay. The total cost of that trip was $1,011.50.

After a flight from Columbus to western Ohio for an event Taylor attended at Advanced Composites
in Sidney (about 75 miles west of Columbus), the plane flew her home to Akron-Canton before
returning to Columbus. The total cost of that trip was $1,169.50.

She also flew to Butler County in southwestern Ohio for a speech to multiple chambers of
commerce about regulatory reform and the supposed evils of President Barack Obama’s health-care
overhaul, but total costs for that trip were not immediately available. It was unclear whether she
had specifically been picked up or dropped off at Akron-Canton.

Taylor’s office also said she flew to Lawrence County for a similar speech in Ironton on Oct.
27, but the Kasich administration says she was neither picked up nor dropped off at Akron-Canton
for that trip.

Taylor wrote personal checks to the state on Nov. 8 for $269.50 for the June 28th flight, $372
for the July 15th flight, and $398 for the Oct. 6 flight. Copies of those checks were provided to
The Dispatch. There was no reimbursement for the Oct. 27 trip.

“Of the nearly 800 meetings she has had in 2011, she needed air travel to make four of them
work,” Stephanie Owen, Taylor’s communications director, said in an email. Requests to interview
Taylor were denied, and a phone message left for her was not returned.

“Legs of those trips to or from the Akron area were covered from personal funds. Based on
changes to how the lieutenant governor is scheduled, we don’t see scenarios in which that would
need to occur again.”

Janetta King, currently president and chief executive officer for the liberal policy group
Innovation Ohio, and former deputy chief of staff for Strickland, criticized Kasich and Taylor for
their plane use.

“Any time that an elected official is using taxpayer money to travel, I think the bar needs to
be very high when making those decisions about using the state plane, which is more expensive than
traveling by vehicle,” King said. “I do think this does raise significant questions about how
responsible the Kasich administration is being with taxpayer dollars, especially in light of
previous criticism that they lodged against plane use.”

Nichols said Kasich’s office works with Taylor’s office to coordinate her schedule, but he would
not confirm if Kasich was aware of the Akron-Canton pick-ups before they occurred. Nichols said the
reimbursement amounts were determined by subtracting from the total cost of the trip what it costs
to fly to Akron-Canton.

“Those trips were all well within the purview of her roles in state government, but to remove
any and all doubt, she is reimbursing the state,” Nichols said.

Taylor, who also heads the Department of Insurance, worked much of most weeks in a Canton
regional office when she was the state’s auditor — a post she held until January. Of the five state
executive officeholders — governor, attorney general, auditor, secretary of state and treasurer —
she was the only one not living in the state capital and based in a Columbus office.

Taylor’s travel patterns for her few plane trips as Kasich’s lieutenant raise questions of where
she is based now. Nichols and Taylor’s current and former aides said that she spends a majority of
her work time in Columbus, but her schedule also requires travel throughout the state.

Ohio’s last chief lieutenant, Lee Fisher, lived in Cleveland and had a condominium in Columbus
while in office. He has said he worked most of the week out of the state capital and a few days a
month in a regional office in Cleveland.

The state keeps flight records for only two years, but records provided by Strickland’s office
last year showed that as governor, Bob Taft flew 74 times in 2005 alone, including from Port
Columbus.